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National QUEBEC Return of the 'Star Wars Kid' In an exclusive with L'actualité, Maclean's sister publication, Ghyslain Raza speaks for the first time with Jonathan Trudel about the infamous video TOHUNDREDS OF millions ofInternet users, Q: What do you remember about taping the the young man who sits before me in video? tury-old brick house in his hometownof A: I don't remember much about it. I made Trois-Rivières, Que., is the Star Wars Kid. Yes, the video in November 2002, when I was a that Star Wars Kid. At age 14,when Ghylain member of the school's television club. I'd Raza was a ninth-grader, attending private been working on a Star Wars parody with school at St.Joseph's Seminary, he videotaped other students for a school gala. One even- himselfedlumsily wielding a golf ball retriever, ing,while I was alone in the studio, I practised pretending that it was a light saber. A few the choreography.I used a golfball retriever classmates found his VHS cassette on a shelf, as a light saber. Most 14-year-old boys would atched the video, digitized it and distrib- do something similar in that situation, mayb uted it-without his knowledge or consentmore gracefully, but I was goofing around. I on the Internet file-sharing service Kazaa. left the tape on a shelf in the studio. I didn't The video wentviral. Overnight, the shy teen- think about hiding it. Who would take the ager's world collapsed. Bullying at school and trouble to watch it? on the web forced him to drop out ofschool.Q: When did you find out that it had been That happened 10 years ago. Since then, broadcast? rumours have circulated that Raza was cm A:One day, in the spring of 2003, Icame into mitted to a psychiatric hospital, died in an the studio and saw that someone had saved "IfI were you, I'd kill myself. I read that in accident and committed suicide. "Hundreds animage from my video as a computer desk French, in English and it was probably writ of erroneous reports about me are in the press top. I wondered how it got there. A friend ten in other languages, too. No one would and on the web-says the 25 yearold. The facts told me, "There's a v deo of you making the allow people to say that i a ii. Tel ng are that Raza graduated from law school at rounds. Didn't you know?" Everything went people to commit suicide is a crime. But on McGill University and plans to begin a mas downhill from there. I knew that I was in the Internet, there are no limits.I quickly ter's degree in law there this fall.Over the pasttrouble right away, because, well, it wasn't figured out that there was no point in read decade, he hasdedined hundreds of interview exactly a martial arts masterpiece. At that ing the stuff. It was poison. requests. A few years ago, he agreed to meet me point, the video had been watched mostly inQ:When did you tell your parents? for coffee. Then, a few months ago, he finally Quebec. But that didn't last. U.S. bloggers, A:Ididn't say anything at first. I was embar- agreed to an interview. Why? Raza says he's including Star Wars fans, started to circulate rassed! No kid wants to come home and say, been shaken by the recent spate of high-pro. People added special effects; soon, teDad, Mom, guess what's happening? The file cases of cyberbullying,some ofwhich have video had tens of millions of viewers. Then whole world is laughing at me." At a certain pushed their victims to commit suicide. He things spun completely out of control.point, I didn't have a choice. I told them hopes that speaking out about his experinceQ What were the repercussions at schooleverything. At the beginning, they couldn't will help young victims to weather the storm A: Everything rapidly degenerated. In the understand what was so special about the common room, students climbed onto table video. They soon learned why. Reporters from tops to insult me. Others mocked the video around the world started pestering me. My Q: Why did you stay silent for 10 years? A: Go back to May 2003, to the early weeks by exaggerating it. People made fun of my dad called the school, but the principal and after the video was posted on the web. It was physical appearance and my weight. I was teachers didn't understand.They were reluc on the verge of going viral, when the New labelled the "Star Wars Kid." They didn't tant to get involved. So my father called the York Times decided to run a story about me. mean it as a compliment. It soon became police. There was nothing that they could do. That was the turning point. That's when impossible for me to attend classes. media worldwide decided that I was an inter Q: Wereyou aware o what peoplewere wrir Q: Getaln.yer orantat? national story. Reporters were knocking at ing about you on the Internet? mydoor,calling so often that we had to unplug A: At first, yes. I wasn't deliberately trying situation. We wanted someone to handle the the telephone. I figured that if I started to to find out, but I was a bit curious. What Imedia requests, which were overwhelming. give interviews, I would only make things saw was mean. It was violent. People were There was also the question of my education. worse. My fame was forced on me; I never telling me to commit suicide. I remember Icouldn't go to school anymore. The lawyers They advised us to get a lawyer. A: At first, we just wanted help to manage the them saying: "You're a pox on humanity"; helped us to find a place where I could wri

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'STUDENTS CLIMBED ONTO TABLETOPS TO INSULT ME.PEOPLE MADE FUN OF MY PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AND MYWEIGHT
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Uploaded May 09, 2013 at 07:01PM EDT

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